"It may sound silly, but the symbols came to me in a dream. I was lightly dozing one afternoon and the symbols were behind my eyelids. I opened my eyes and knew what I had to do---get the symbols for Suffering, Ecstasy, and Death tattooed on my back.

The shop is called Rising Phoenix Tattoo in Addison, IL and the artist is Dave. I have been to Dave several times, even though I live in Arizona. This particular time, I was at a writers’ retreat in Illinois and knew I had to get the tattoo. I went with my god-son, Josh, who is in his late twenties. It is a long wait there as only Dave was there to manage the shop (we arrived at opening, noon). He had to answer the phone in mid-tattoo, pull off a glove, say 'Tattoo' and answer some basic question about hours, etc. then re-glove. If someone came in and wanted a piercing, he stopped the tattoo and did the piercing. So it took many hours to each get a tattoo. But it is worth it because Dave is a true artist."